Recent news

A new six-week plan uses a multipronged approach to help those dealing with ongoing or chronic pain.

For Collette Dowd, when pain strikes, she is left incapacitated. What feels like a series of electric shocks explode across her skull, while a burning sensation spreads across her face. Accompanying these symptoms are crippling migraines that often make 44-year old mum of two Collette want to claw at her own head.

Collette suffers from trigeminal neuralgia, which is caused by nerve compression at the base of her skull. There is no cure and even the strongest painkillers only help to reduce symptoms. When Collette was invited to a pioneering pain management programme at The Walton Centre, she was quick to agree.

The six-week programme uses a combination of physiotherapy, occupational therapy and cognitive behavioural therapy while connecting patients with others in a similar situation.

The festive season is traditionally a time for giving, with charities working hard during this period to raise money to fund their work. Today, we look at why Counselling Directory has chosen to support Women’s Aid this Christmas.

Figures recently published by Women’s Aid have revealed that many domestic violence services are under-resourced, under-funded and in a state of crisis.

Considering the scale of domestic violence, with 1.5 million women experiencing domestic violence every year and 2 women killed every week by a former or current partner, the sector is at breaking point and is experiencing cutbacks in all areas.

According to the figures:

Across the 150 organisations that responded, 112 specialist posts were lost in 2013, with the majority cut due to a reduction in funding.

On the survey’s “snapshot” day, which occurred 27 June 2013, 103 children and 155 women were turned away from refuges in England.

In the last four years, the number of people receiving care in England has fallen by a quarter according to recent figures.

This fall in numbers comes despite an ageing population putting the care system under strain. The number of disabled young people and elderly being cared for was 1.78 million in 2008-09, but now this number has fallen to 1.32 million.

This reduction in numbers has been blamed on budget cuts in the social sector. It is thought that by 2015, local government will have lost a staggering third of its budget. Despite the government trying to protect social care, it is apparent that services have been hit.

The largest drop in numbers is among those aged 65+ getting social support. Last year alone this number fell by over 10% to under 900,000.

Chief Executive of Scope (disability charity) and chairman of the Care and Support Alliance, Richard Hawkes said:

“This is further evidence of a social care system on its knees and in desperate need of a reform. Chronic underfunding has seen hundreds of thousands of older and disabled people lose their support for...

As 2013 draws to close we take a look at what people most regret. If any of the below hit home, consider how you could prevent them from becoming your regrets in 2014.

Researchers from the University of Illinois and Northwestern University asked a group of 370 adults about their biggest regrets. Overall, most fell into one of the following seven categories:

Seven – Poor healthComing in at number seven, six per cent cited poor health as their number one regret. Perhaps this was not exercising enough, not managing to give up smoking or generally not treating their body in the way it deserved.

Six – Parenting slip-upsNine per cent of survey respondents said their biggest regret came under the parenting heading, with many parents wishing they had spent less time in the office and more time at home with their children.

Five – FinancesBeing money-wise is easier said than done, and it would seem that 10 per cent of respondents agreed. Spend money and live your life, but make a plan for yourself and be smart to avoid looking back and wishing you had been wiser with your...

Christmas is typically the season during which we enjoy and appreciate spending time with our family. However, if a long-standing family rift has gotten in the way of this happening for the past few years, see our tips below on how to resolve family conflict:

Don’t be too proud – Pride has a place in life because it helps us to avoid being walked all over. However, there is such a thing as being too proud and this can stand in the way of our ability to ‘let go’. If you have a long-standing rift with a family member, don’t sit and think that they should be the one to make the first move – if you want to make things better you need to learn to park your pride and move past it.

Don’t confuse winning with reconciliation – In your mind you may believe that continuing an argument or waiting for an apology to come your way is helping. If this is the case consider what you really want – is your objective to make things better or to win?

Try to stop thinking about the situation as two-sided and reposition yourself so that you are trying to find a remedy. This is your family remember, it isn’t a competition.

What’s the problem, do you really know? – Sounds like we might be stating the obvious, but...

The British Journal of Sports Medicine has recently published an editorial labelling the lack of an official proper national policy to get UK children to do more exercise as mass “child neglect”, but is this comment naive and shortsighted or is there some truth in it?

According to the British Journal of Sports Medicine, children from all backgrounds and abilities should at least have the opportunity to exercise on a daily basis, an ideal that is currently very far from reality as “the government have failed to implement a national policy to implement children’s exercise”.

The editorial states that despite mounting evidence that shows both the immediate and long-term benefits of regular exercise in childhood, leadership and strategy on the issue “are totally absent”.

While we do know that Britain’s child obesity epidemic is still growing to epic proportions, with news breaking earlier on this year that children as young as ten months old were being admitted to hospital because they are dangerously overweight, Tim Loughton, former Children’s Minister, has called the comments in the journal both unhelpful and alarmist.

Co-author of the editorial under scrutiny, Dr Richard Weiler, is a consultant in sport and exercise medicine...

In a historic step that marks the first time a gay person in England and Wales will possess marriage rights equal to those of heterosexuals, it has been announced that same-sex weddings can take place from 29 March 2014.

Equalities Minister Maria Miller has announced that same-sex weddings are to begin from March 2014.

Under the terms of this new bill, religious organisations (with the exception of the Church of England and Church of Wales who are banned in law from doing so), will need to ‘opt in’ to holding weddings and couples wishing to be among the first to join in matrimony will need to give formal notice of their intention to marry by 13 March.

These proposals have been backed by the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat leaderships, with Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg tweeting: “Great news that same sex weddings will happen from 29th March 2014 #savethedate”, after hearing of the announcement.

Ms Miller is also said to be working hard to ensure that couples who would like to convert their civil partnerships into marriages, and married people who want to change their legal gender while remaining married, will be able to do this before the end of...

As the weather turns colder, experts try to avoid another increase in cold weather related deaths.

With the coldest British weather still ahead of us, now is the time to take precautions to protect those at risk – mainly the elderly.

Last winter was described as the coldest in 50 years and saw the number of deaths related to cold weather rise by nearly a third. With 31,000 ‘excess’ deaths last winter, almost all of them were people aged 75 and over. The figures, published by the Office for National Statistics found that about 40% of these deaths were caused by heart attacks or strokes and a third from respiratory disease.

Dr Angie Bone, from Public Health England (PHE), explains that while few people actually die from being too cold, the cold weather has a direct impact on physiology.

“Blood vessels constrict, resulting in high blood pressure. As blood is diverted away from the skin to keep vital organs going, fluid is lost from the circulation and blood becomes thicker and more at risk of clotting.”

Hospital admissions related to drugs and alcohol are now costing the NHS £607 million, with an increase in middle-aged drinking thought to be to blame.

Over half a million people have been taken to hospital over the last three years for alcohol and drug related health problems. The majority of cases have been due to alcohol abuse related conditions such as liver disease. According to recent figures, this is costing the NHS a staggering £607 million a year.

More than 20% of the total admissions recorded over the last three years were people in their 40s. The findings were published by Dr Foster (health care data specialists), leading to warnings that drinkers in their 40s could be at risk of developing serious health complications, including cancer.

Of the drinkers in their 40s admitted to hospital during 2012-2013, nearly 20% were considered by the NHS as an ’emergency admission due to known drug/alcohol issue’.

The figures also revealed that the median age of those admitted to hospital for substance abuse is rising; in 2002/2003 the median age was 41, now it is 43. One-off admissions for binge...

The Government has announced that all children in care in England can stay with foster parents until they turn 21.

Up until now, foster parents in England were only given financial support to take care of children until they turn 18. The new law that has been put in place this week will give teenagers in care the option to stay with foster families until they turn 21. Local authorities will now have a duty to support foster families financially until the young person’s 21st birthday.

Children and Families Minister Edward Timpson made the announcement earlier this week, along with a pledge of an extra £40 million for funding over the next three years.

Mr Timpson’s family has fostered almost 90 children, so he knows how crucial it is for children in care to be given sufficient time to prepare for life outside of the care system. He says the measure is part of a wider package of support for care leavers that will include a greater level of financial support for those leaving care at 18.